Here we are at Chapter 55. Time for the final member of Velvet's group to join the stage, along with a few other things to see. I do not own RWBY or Tales of Berseria. They belong to their respective owners. Here's chapter 55. Enjoy.


Chapter 55: A Fine Blade

The forests of Anima are peaceful. Birds chirping in the trees. A steady stream of water nearby while a gentle breeze blows through the air…and one lone bandit sent flying into a tree off to the side. Velvet runs through the three as she fights off several bandits, three of which fire their rifles at her. Velvet eventually moves in, firing off her gauntlet at their rifles, stopping the gunfire. Velvet activates her arm blade and jumps into the air, swinging it down on one bandit and sending them flying. Velvet then activates her foot blades and throws a right side kick at a bandit from her rear it the face, staggering them before she throws a roundhouse kick to their chest. Velvet backflips away as two bandits attack with their swords, evading them. She then deflects both of their blades with her arm blade before she deals three strikes on one with her foot blades, followed by shooting the blade of the second bandit out of their hands, and finishes them off with a few slashes from her arm blade. Velvet runs forth as two bandits fire off their rifles at her again. She runs at one of them, slashing through the bullets and then jumps up into the air, landing on the barrel of the weapon and forcing it onto the ground. The bandit gasps before he gets knocked back by a backflip kick from Velvet. Velvet then activates her demon claw and fires off a fire arte at three bandits as they run at her, sending them all flying in a fiery explosion. The last bandit standing fires off her rifle at Velvet, but Velvet is too quick and speeds around each bullet before she grabs the bandit's head with her claw and smashes them into the ground. Seeing that the bandits are dealt with, Velvet deactivates her demon claw, but then blocks a shot with her arm blade. She looks to see the shady man she punched earlier aiming a pistol at her. The man gets worried and fires at her again, but his pistol jams up. Velvet runs at him, and he swings the blade on his pistol when she gets close, only for her to slide under the attack and roundhouse kick him from behind, causing him to crash into one bandit that was just about to get up, knocking them both down.

Velvet sighs in boredom, "I was really hoping for more than that. And you call yourself 'bandits'? Please…" she notes as she shakes her head.

Velvet begins to walk away, but the shady man gets on his hands and knees.

"Who…Who the Hell are you? It doesn't matter. When Raven finds out what you did, you're dead!" the man threatens her with a smirk.

The name gets her attention as she looks back at him, "Raven? As in Raven Branwen?" she asks as she approaches him.

The shady man laughs, "Hahaha, that's right. Scared now, aren't ya? Well you should…be…" the shady man trails off as Velvet looms over him, unfazed.

Velvet then picks him up by his shirt, holding him in the air by one hand, "I got a better idea. How about you take me to your boss, Raven. I wish to speak with her," Velvet demands.

"W-wait, are you serious? You know she'll kill you, right?!" the man yells.

Velvet drops him, "Oh, I doubt that. She's interested in me, it seems. And I also doubt she'll just kill a close friend of her daughter's, Yang Xiao Long," Velvet says.

At hearing this, the man pales in fear, "I'm dead," he says and pass out.

Velvet groans, "Great. Neither of these guys have any spines in them whatsoever," she mutters.

Meanwhile, on a ship heading for Menagerie, Blake Belladonna, in a new outfit and already devoid of her bow, walks across the side of the ship, trying to stay away from the rest of the people on board, wanting to be alone. However, as she walks to the bow of the ship, she sees someone sitting close to the edge. The man is wearing black legwarmers, pale-lilac samurai pants and woven robes. Another layer of a dark purple robe is worn over and tied around his waist. The purple layer of clothing has orange as its inverted color. He is wearing a chest-plate guard and presumably something of the similar sort for his arms, which is finished off by a thick, plated shoulder-guard. He has a strap attached to his torso which he hangs two large greatswords on his back. He is also wearing traditional sandal footwear for that of samurais; with straps and socks. The man has mid-length, spiky and black hair which covers the right portion of his face. His hair is tied into a low-ponytail and each strand of hair flicks out. The man is sitting in a meditative position, with a jug of sake at his side, and a cup in his hands as he drinks. The man then looks to her and smiles.

"Hey there, nice day for a drink don't you think?" the man asks.

Blake glances away, "I…wouldn't know. I'm too young to drink," she replies.

"Aw, that sucks. A friend of mine said the same thing once when I offered her a drink. Heh, it's hard to find a good drinking buddy these days, ain't that right Kurogane?" he says to no one in particular.

Blake's ears perk up and she looks around, but finds no one else around, "Are you okay? There's no one here. Maybe you've had a little too much to drink," she says.

"Oh no, I'm fine. And I was talking to someone," the man says, putting down his cup and pulling out one of his greatswords.

The sword has a long, single-edged blade with a deep red color, followed by mostly black along the center of the blade and tinges of gold. Blake stared at the sword in slight awe. She could see that the sword was just that, a sword. There appeared to be no mechanisms in it for other weapons like hers or her teammates. It looked like an old fashioned sword forged centuries ago. But then again, Yatsuhashi used a greatsword that had no secondary functions to it. While Blake stared at it in awe, it also unnerved her a bit by the coloring of the blade. It gave off an almost demonic presense.

"This here is my partner, Kurogane Stormquell. It was made by a good friend of mine, who was the greatest swordsmith in the world. He made it to defeat another blade, a sword called Stormhowl," the man says as he sheathes his first sword only to pull out his second greatsword, a blade of the same design, but with different materials and colors. "This is Stormhowl," the man says.

At this point, Blake was getting a little more interested. But then one thing confuses her. This man said that he had a friend who wanted to create a blade that could beat one of his swords, so why does he have both?

"Why do you have the blade he wanted to defeat if he created a blade to defeat it?" Blake asks.

The man stares at Stormhowl, "Well…this didn't always belong to me…It used to belong to my older brother…Right before I killed him," the man says.

"WHAT?!" Blake shouts in horror. "You…You killed your own brother, just to get his sword?!" she yells.

"Actually, it's a lot more complicated than that," the man replies, drinking another cup of sake.

Blake then pulls out Gambol Shroud and aims the blade at him, "How can it be complicated to kill your own brother?!" she asks in anger.

The man sighs, "As much as I love a good fight, this will have to wait. But if you're looking for a brawl, then you're in luck. Only you won't be fighting me, you'll be fighting him," the man says, pointing his thumb to his left.

"Huh?" Blake mutters, confused, but then notices something out of the corner of her eye, something big.

They look over to see a giant Grimm Sea Dragon rise up out of the water from the side of the ship. Blake looks on in shock, while the man just smirks before pulling out both of his greatswords.

"This should be fun. This'll be my first fight against a Grimm this big. Though, I've killed plenty of dragons before. You want to help me out?" the man asks Blake.

Blake narrows her eyes at him. While she would never work with someone who killed his own brother, the fact remains that if they don't work together, this dragon will destroy the ship and kill all the passengers, and she couldn't let that happen.

"Fine, I'll help out…for now. But you've got some explaining to do afterwards," Blake says.

"No problem. By the way, my name's Rokurou," Rukurou replies.

"…Blake," Blake replies. "Rokurou? That name sounds…familiar…"

The two then run to the side of the ship and jump off of it. Blake uses her semblance to throw herself towards the dragon, while Rokurou starts spinning in the air, swinging his blade around in a wide arc. Blake fires off her pistol at the dragon's head, getting its attention, while Rokurou gets a few swings in on its face. Rokurou lands on its head and jumps off to start running along its back, swinging his blades over and over again as he goes. Blake throws her chain-scythe, with the blade imbedding itself into the hide of the dragon, swinging herself around to get close to its head. The dragon moves around, throwing off her aim, and flexes its tail around to get Rokurou off. The samurai jumps off and stabs his right blade into the dragon's lower tail while Blake manages to land back onto the ship. The dragon swings its tail up, forcing Rokurou to jump high into the air. The dragon then unleashes a lightning breath attack straight at him, but Rokurou manages to spin around the attack as he falls back down. When he gets close, Rokurou swings his blades at the left side of the dragon's head, leaving two long gashes on the side of its face, before he lands next to Blake on the ship.

"Get the cannons ready!" they hear the captain yell out.

Cannons appear along the sides of the ship, followed by a heavy cannon at the bow of the ship. They begin firing at the dragon, but before the heavy cannon is loaded, the dragon sprouts wings from out between the fins on its back, and takes to the air. The heavy cannon fires, but misses as the dragon flies through the air. The dragon turns back to them, charging up its breath attack, but then someone in a brown cloak jumps on Blake before jumping off of her into the air. The person takes off the cloak, revealing themselves to be Sun Wukong, who activates his semblance to create two clones that grab the two long whisker like tendons on the dragon's head, while Sun grabs his head.

"Sun!" Blake yells. "What are you doing?!" she yells.

The dragon starts flying around, and Sun does what he can to hang on, "Oh, you know, just…hanging out!" Sun yells as he rides he dragon.

"Is he your boyfriend?" Rokurou asks.

Blake blushes a little bit at this, "NO! He's not my boyfriend!" she yells.

"Well, whatever, let's help him out," Rokurou says before they see the dragon use its electricity to knock Sun off its head.

Blake jumps up to the top of the ship using her chain-scythe to fling her around and into the air to catch Sun, the two of them landing on a nearby small island, with many more around them.

"My hero," Sun says somewhat dramactically.

"You're not supposed to be here!" Blake retorts, irritated.

"Oh yeah, well it looks like you could use all the help you can get!" Sun counters her.

The two then look up to see the dragon about to attack them again, only for Rokurou to appear and swing his swords at its left arm, slicing it clean off, making it roar in pain and back off.

Rokurou then lands next to them, "If you've got time to talk, you've got time to fight. This isn't the time to be picky about who fights with us!" Rokurou tells them.

"Who's he?" Sun asks.

"Ugh," Blake groans and drops Sun, "Just shut up and fight," Blake says before she and Rokurou run back to face the dragon.

"Yes, mam," Sun replies, still on the ground.

Blake glances at Rokurou and nods to him. Rokurou smirks and puts it swords together before swinging them around. Blake jumps over to him and lands on the flat ends of the blades, allowing Rokurou to swing her high into the air above the dragon. Blake falls down, using her semblance to swing her down as the dragon tries to eat her, only for her to narrowly avoid its jaws and land a few swings along the side of its face. Blake lands on the bow of the ship, and looks up to see the dragon fire off another breath attack at her. She prepares to block it, only for Sun to appear in front of her to block it. However, Rokurou suddenly lands in front of them and swings his swords downwards, slicing through the attack in two and making it hit the water on the sides of the ship.

"Aw, he stole my moment!" Sun groans, making Rokurou smirk.

Rokurou looks back up to the dragon, "We need to ground this overgrown sea snake. Hey kid, can you give us a lift?" he asks as he looks back to Sun.

"You got it!" Sun replies.

"Blake, I'll take out one wing, you take out the other, got it?" Rokurou asks Blake.

Blake nods. Sun then jumps up and creates three clones. Rokurou and Blake spring board off the first one, then use the other two to jump high into the air. Sun waits for them, but gets worried when he sees both of them flying at him. They both bounce off of him and fly down in different directions. The dragon fires off a series of breath attacks, but while Blake spins around each one, Rokurou slices through them with his blades. When they get close, Blake uses her katana to slice through the flesh of the left wing, while Rokurou goes for the limb and slices the wing clear off. The two fall down, with Rokurou landing on his feet, while Sun catches Blake in a bridal carry.

"…This is the part where you say it!" he tells her, making Blake groan in annoyance.

The rock island they're one starts shaking and they see the dragon attacking it. The three start jumping off island after island as the dragon chases them up and down through the water, crashing into each island they land on. At one point, the dragon swings its tail around at Rokurou, but he lands his feet on it and jumps high into the air. Blake fires some shots at it, getting its attention, and jumps away as it tries to eat her again. Sun moves in to help, but the dragon turns to him, and is about to chomp him down, only for Blake to swing thanks to her chain scythe, and grab him to safety. The two land on one rock island, just as the dragon gets ready to attack them again. However, Rokurou suddenly swoops in and swings his swords at its unguarded neck, beheading the beast, and landing in front of them while the dead Grimm's body falls into the ocean. The people on the ship nearby cheer for victory now that they're safe.

Rokurou sheathes his swords, "Well, that was a nice workout. Though I'd hope it would've put up at least a little more of a fight," he says, smirking.

"Whoa, who is this guy?" Sun asks.

Blake just stares at Rokurou, "He decapitated a Grimm of that size with just one swing of his sword. He must be a skilled and experienced huntsman to have pulled that off with just a pair of regular swords. Who is he?" she wonders.

Rokurou turns to them, "Well, that was fun, but I think it's time we properly introduced ourselves, starting with you, monkey boy," he says.

"Huh? Oh, well, I'm Sun Wukong. A friend of Blake's here. Nice to meet ya," Sun says, making Blake glare at him.

"Excellent. I'm Rokurou, a pleasure. I already know Blake here. Truth be told, I knew about her long before I met her," Rokurou says.

Blake and Sun get defensive at this, "What are you talking about? What do you mean, you already knew me?" Blake asks, slowly readying her weapon. Just then, a cool breeze blows by, moving Rokurou's hair and revealing the right side of his face, the side with the demon eye and skin, which shocks them. "What…What are you?" Blake asks as she aims her pistol at Rokurou.

"Oh, that, well, I used to be human…But I'm a demon now," Rokurou says as he gets more serious.

"Wait, what?!" Sun yells.

Rokurou scratches his chin, "Hmm, I'd figured you'd be more used to this now, considering you were one of Velvet's teammates," he says to Blake.

"Velvet?" Blake mutters, but then her eyes widen as she thinks back to what Velvet once told her. "First, I met this samurai as he likes to call himself named Rokurou. He was a guy that liked making chaos and getting into fights, but he knew how to keep his blades sheathed when he needed to," Velvet's words echoed in her mind. Blake looks back to Rokurou, "You're one of Velvet's old companions, Rokurou, the samurai," she says. "But then that means that he came here from Velvet's world. But why?"

Rokurou smiles, "Hah, so you talked about me. That's nice to hear. But, yeah, Velvet and I are old friends. I was surprised to learn about what she's been doing since I last saw her, but then again, she always did make things interesting," he notes.

"Wait, this guy knows your old teammate, Velvet? Then why is he supposed to be a demon?" Sun asks.

Blake sighs, "It's a long story. Listen, Rokurou, I don't know if you know this, but Velvet is…" Blake trails off as she thinks to when Velvet 'disappeared'.

Rokurou holds up his hand, "Oh, don't worry about Velvet. I saw her before I came here. She's fine," he says.

Blake's eyes widen, "What?! How?! Where?!" Blake yells as she steps up to him.

Rokurou runs his head, "Ah, I'm afraid it's a little hard to explain. I'll explain later, but for now…" he trails off as they see the ship move closer to pick them up.

Back in Anima, Raven Branwen is in her tent at the Branwen bandit tribe encampment, sharpening her sword. A moment later, her subordinate, Vernal, steps inside.

"Um, Raven?" Vernal asks.

"What is it?" Raven asks without looking back.

"We have a visitor," Vernal says.

Raven glances back at her, "Who?" she asks.

A second later, one of her bandits gets sent flying through her tent, going in one exit and out the other in the back without a loud crash. The two women look at each other before Raven stand up and puts her mask on. The two walk out of her tent, only to find Velvet Crowe standing in the center of the camp, with several bandits on the ground around her, beaten, bruised, and unconscious. Velvet narrows her eyes at Raven.

"Raven Branwen…We need to talk," Velvet says.


And that's the chapter. And now Rokorou has joined the fun, going with Blake, while Velvet meets Raven once again. Things should get dicey between those two. Now with all the current players in the game, who knows what'll happen next? Will Blake be able to trust Rokurou? How will Velvet's meeting with Raven end? Until then, please Read and Review.